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Trivia

The closing arguments monologue was the longest in film history.

Although the story was obviously a thinly-disguised recreation of the Nathaniel Leopold and Richard Loeb murder case, the legal department of 20th Century Fox was still concerned about a possible lawsuit from the still-living Leopold. A great effort was made not to mention Leopold or Loeb in the movie, press releases, and interviews. However, there was apparently poor communication with the advertising department, since when the movie came out, newspaper ads stated, "Based on the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case." Leopold sued 20th Century Fox, and won.

Because Orson Welles was having tax problems during the production, at the end of shooting his salary for the movie was garnisheed by the L.A. Sheriff's department. This upset Welles so much that just before he finished looping his dialogue in post-production, he stormed off the studio and left the country. All that was left to be looped was the last twenty seconds of his end speech in the courtroom. Incredibly, editor 'Bill Reynolds' fixed this problem without needing Welles. Reynolds took words and pieces of words Welles had spoken earlier in the movie, and pieced them one by one into those twenty seconds.